Embodiment in Digital Art

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‘[…] the image can no longer be restricted to the level of surface appearance, but must be extended to encompass the entire process by which information is made perceivable through embodied existence. This is what I propose to call the digital image.’ (Mark Hansen: New Philosophy for New Media, p. 10)

In this last special at Artificial we have chosen the theme: ‘Embodiment in digital art’. Inspired by current trends in media art and theory, we take our point of departure in the expanded notion of the digital image in order to have a closer look at the role of the body in contemporary digital art and culture.

Art has always actively involved human beings: whether you read a book, watch a film, visit a museum – or just talk to a good friend. As soon as you engage in the world, a process of interaction and exchange occurs.

In his widely acknowledged book, New Philosophy for New Media, Mark Hansen demonstrates how the embodied spectator is involved directly in the very production of contemporary media art with focus on process, performance and interaction. The ‘image’ can no longer be understood as an external formal thing, e.g. as a canvas hanging on the wall in a gallery. The so-called digital image has to be acknowledged as an open field or terrain of possibilities in-formed or in-framed by physically present human beings in specific situations bound in time and space. The embodied existence is the filter, the nexus and the materiality of the art experience. Following Mark Hansen’s argument means that in order to grasp the new scene for the digital art event, we have to turn our focus from the level of code towards the embodied human experience.

This special consists of a number of interviews and articles about international projects – from young talented ideas to prominent research projects – which investigate aspects of embodiment in different art forms supported by state of the art technology. Our focus on this subject is part of a wider theme on ‘body and technology’ which will be launched by the web magazine Turbulens (www.turbulens.net) in March 2007 (the curator group Maskinstorm (www.maskinstorm.org) is also involved in the theme). Keep an eye open this spring for a broad variety of activities within the field.